Advisory Board

From among the Institute's supporting and honorary members, the Executive Board selects an Advisory Board. The Advisory Board meets once a year, collaborating with the Executive Board and the directors to provide long-term guidance. Its members are drawn from many realms ' science, politics, public authorities and the media. They ensure that the Institute remains at the cutting edge of key scientific and social issues.

The current members of the Advisory Board are:

Prof. Dr. Nina Buchmannis newly appointed to the Advisory Board. She has been full professor of grassland sciences at the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich since April 2003. Her main research interests include the ecophysiology of plants and ecosystems, the biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems and the interactions between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and sustainable resource use. She was a founding member of the German Young Academy of Sciences (Junge Akademie, 2000-2005) and was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2007. Between 2004 and 2008, she sat on the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Since 2008, Nina Buchmann has been a member of the Agricultural Research Council of Switzerland and also serves on the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). Homepage >>

Dr. Susanne Droegeis newly appointed to the Advisory Board. She has been a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP) since 2006, and head of its ‘Global Issues’ research division since 2009. Susanne Dröge studied economics in Berlin and Warwick. Between 1999 and 2006, she worked as a research associate at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). She coordinates various projects for Climate Strategies, among other bodies, and addresses her research to international environmental policy, especially climate policy, and to foreign trade and environmental governance. Homepage >>

Dr. Erhard Eppleris a former German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation, and was president of the German Protestant Church Convention and chairman of the German Social Democratic Party's Basics Commission.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Frickewas appointed Professor in the Waste and Resource Department of the Leichtweiß-Institute at the TU Braunschweig in 1999. Since 1997 he has also been employed as a Lecturer for the further education course in Civil Engineering at the Bauhaus University, Weimar, specializing in biotechnologies in waste management. Prof. Fricke is also active in the waste management field outside of his university positions: In 2002 he was Head of the Expert Committee for International Waste Management at the ANS (German Association for the Use of Secondary Raw Materials and For Climate Protection) and has also been a member of the advisory board of the ASA (German Working Group on Material-Specific Waste Treatment) since 2004.

Prof. Dr. Martin Führteaches constitutional, environmental and technology law at Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences, in the faculty and department of social and cultural sciences. In collaboration with economists, sociologists, natural scientists and engineers he established the Society for Institutional Analysis – sofia. From 1990 to 1993 he was on the Oeko-Institut staff as coordinator of the Environmental Law & Governance division, and served on the Executive Board from 1993 to 1997, latterly as the spokesperson. In 2008, the European Commission appointed him to the management board of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki.

Prof. Dr. Regine Kollekwas a member of the scientific team of the Study Commission of the German Bundestag 'Opportunities and risks of genetic engineering' in Bonn from 1985 to 1987. She worked for Oeko-Institut in Freiburg in a freelance capacity from 1987 to 1988, and was a member of the Institute's Executive Board from 1987 to 1991. She was employed as a researcher at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research from 1988 to 1995. She has been a professor of technology assessment in modern medical biotechnology at Hamburg University since 1995, and a member of the German National Ethics Council (Nationaler Ethikrat) since 2001.

Prof. Dr. Ellen Matthieshas been professor for environmental psychology at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg since December 2011. From 2001 to 2010 she was associate professor for Applied Psychology at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. In the years 2003 to 2009 she was a member of, and latterly chaired, the spokespersons’ group of the ‘Environmental Psychology’ section of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). Since 2009, as a professor of environmental psychology, she has participated in the interdisciplinary working group on ‘Risk Psychology, Environment and Safety’ at the NTNU Trondheim, Norway. Homepage >>

Prof. Dr. Peter C. Mayer-Taschis since 1971 a professor of political science and the theory of law at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich. From 1971 to 2003 he was a member of the management board of the Geschwister Scholl Institute, and the director of the institute for 14 years. He founded the research centre for political ecology at the LMU, which he heads to this day. Since 2002 he is the chancellor of the college of political sciences (Hochschule für Politik) in Munich.

Prof. Dr. Eckard Rehbinderis emeritus professor of environmental law and commercial law at the law faculty of the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, and is attached to its environmental law research centre. From 1987 to 2000, he was a member of the Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) in Wiesbaden, which he chaired between 1996 and 2000. He is also on the board of the Institute for Rural Development Research in Frankfurt am Main, and of the Europäische Akademie in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler which specialises in studying the consequences of scientific and technological advances.

Prof. Dr. Lucia Reischresearches and teaches at the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility of Copenhagen Business School, and at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, where her work focuses on consumer behaviour and consumer policy. She is a member of the editorial board of the international Journal of Consumer Policy, member of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) and chair of the Advisory Council for Consumer Policy at the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). Her prime fields of work are: corporate social responsibility, empirical consumer behaviour research, sustainable consumption and production patterns, sustainability communication and, finally, sustainability, consumer and food policy.

Dr. Hartmut RichterDr. Hartmut Richter first gathered professional experience during the local government reforms in the late 1960s in Germany when he worked as a municipal civil servant, before joining the academic staff in Constance in the field of public administration research. Following this period, he switched to association policy, spending 25 years as Chief Executive of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Association of Chambers of Crafts (Handwerkstag), which is an industry, employers and chamber association rolled into one. Richter was involved in establishing and developing this organization and subsidiary bodies such as a certification body, an energy purchasing cooperative and a consulting firm. He is also active on a supervisory level in, among others, financial institutions, educational organizations and transfer institutions. In addition, Richter is a member of all major advisory bodies of the Stuttgart State Government. This network was used to strengthen, in particular, exploratory association work. He continues to work today as a lecturer in Economics at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) and on several corporate boards.

Prof. em. Dr. Udo Ernst Simonisis a research fellow for environmental policy at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB). He is the current President of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE) and a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP). Since 1991 he has edited and co-published the 'Jahrbuch Ökologie' environmental policy yearbook. Homepage >>